Photocatalytic Nanomaterials for Bacterial Disinfection

Abstract

With rapidly growing urbanization and industrialization in developing countries around the world, a large volume of wastewater is produced by industries that contain waterborne diseases, and photocatalysis is confirmed as a promising technology for water disinfection. Nevertheless, specific photocatalysts are required with the ability to produce high amounts of diffusible reactive species with a long lifetime, such as H2O2. The latter has been considered as the main obstacle that restricts its efficiency for water disinfection process. Indeed, nanostructured materials having a definite morphology have a large surface area and size enhances higher photocatalytic oxidation separation. This makes it possible to accomplish better efficiency in the water disinfection process that has now attracted more attention from policymakers and scientists to develop novel photocatalysts. This review discusses recent applications of low-dimensional nanostructured photocatalysts and their preparation, characterization, and efficiency for the removal of pathogenic microorganisms. It also highlights the reacting mechanism of the photogenerated reactive oxygen species and suported catalysis for the disinfection of pathogenic microorganisms, and the effect of the chemical characteristics of the water matrix barrer is reviewed comprehensively. Finally, the recent development of low-dimensional nanostructured photocatalysts for water disinfection and its challenges and perspectives in the future are discussed. This review suggests that the in-depth study of the electrochemical cell using boron-doped electrodes such as its characterization is extremely promising for the disinfection of bacterial cells with the utilization of natural minerals and genetic technologies.